Policy makers and planners often neglect local conditions and local knowledge while formulating plans and policies for their region. Consequently, when plans do not reflect ground realities, they fail and cause opposition from the local communities. Hence it is important to properly understand local beliefs and attitudes to devise programs that are sound, cost-effective and sustainable in the long run. An article in The Guardian discusses community participation as an effective tool for solving problems that are localized in nature. It talks about Africa’s sanitation crisis and how regions within the continent are dealing with this problem. Some interesting quotes from the article:

“Know the area, know the people.It is only through talking and listening to the people on the ground that we will be able to make long-lasting and sustainable moves out of poverty. This is especially pertinent when trying to educate people about sanitation and hygiene and bringing about a change in behaviour.”

“In many rural areas in west Africa, the practice of open-air defecation is ritualised and bound in tradition. Beyond individual differences, the members of a group or society are united by similar ways of thinking and behaving, and will react to situations in similar ways. Our research showed that reasons for resistance to using a latrine included beliefs that one might be possessed by demons, lose magical powers or live a shorter life. Some believe a toilet is meant only for wealthy people or that, if somebody feeds you, you should in turn defecate in their field.”

Read more..

For most Chennai residents, using buses to travel within the city is inevitable. This means that you need to find out where the bus stop is, what bus number goes to your destination, what route the bus takes and where you have to get off. But in Chennai, unless you are a frequent bus traveller, this information can prove elusive. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) currently does not offer an easily searchable map of bus routes in the city, or even a list of bus routes with all stops.

Transparent Chennai talked to the MTC to find out about how we can ease the access to such information. There are 650 bus-routes that are overseen by the MTC. The authorities at the MTC said that they did not have up-to-date maps for every bus route. Their website provides the names of all the main stages or depots that each route passes through. Unfortunately, this leaves out quite a bit of information. Each stage or depot is separated by roughly 2 km, and the website does not provide bus stop information. Users can search for routes that ply between particular stages that they identify from a drop down menu. While this is a start, residents do not always know the name of the closest depot near their origin or destination. The database also does not offer alternative options if there is no direct bus connecting these points.

This is why Transparent Chennai developed our new layer, a bus routes layer, using the bus stage data from the government, but repackaging it in a format that makes it far more useful. Commuters can just click on their origin and destination directly on the map to see all the routes that connect them. Check it out at: www.transparentchennai.com/buildamap/busroutestage/

But what about bus stops? Getting the names and locations of all the bus stops for these routes is a problem that we have been scratching our heads about for quite a few months. As far as we can tell, there are only two ways to get stop data for Chennai buses: To ask people, and to collect it manually ourselves.

We decided to try our hand at collecting and assembling comprehensive bus-route information ourselves. In the months of February, March and May of 2010, six interns from Stella Maris got into groups of two. At the beginning of every week, they compiled a list of buses that covered the city fairly well and seemed to be widely used. Then the interns set out, armed with a GPS unit, the bus numbers and some help from Google maps, and travelled the route from end to end. Every route took them roughly 3-4 hours and they marked bus stops on their GPS units, and, with the help of some very patient bus drivers and conductors, wrote down the stop name on a table. Everyday the bus-routes would be transferred from the GPS unit to our office computer, edited for errors and saved. The Transparent Chennai team covered over 70 routes in 7 weeks and also picked up random bus-route trivia. Did you know an ordinary 29C goes only up till Besant Nagar but a 29C Deluxe goes up to Thiruvanmiyur but via Adyar, not Besant Nagar?

Check out our routes complete with all bus stops here: www.transparentchennai.com/buildamap/busroutes

If you’re interested in helping us map all the bus stop information, please do get in touch with the Transparent Chennai team at tc@ifmr.ac.in, and for more updates on our work join our mailing list here.

Transparent Chennai

Transparent Chennai is working on several initiatives to create data and improve accountability in the city. We are looking for volunteers to help us in our efforts. There are a number of ways in which you can get involved with Transparent Chennai:

• Beach Layer: Transparent Chennai, in collaboration with Reclaim our Beaches, has begun a new initiative to map Chennai’s beaches. TC is creating maps of the city’s beaches with toilet locations, informal urination spots, dustbins, dumpsters, trash accumulation sides, hawker areas, and other features, and looking at changes in usage through the day. These maps will help Reclaim our Beaches lobby the Corporation to install dust bins, public toilets and other much needed infrastructure along the beach. We invite individuals and groups to get involved with this initiative, as well as other groups to work with Transparent Chennai to create data for better advocacy work. You can view our new Elliot’s Beach map under the Build a Map section of the site.
• Waterlogging Layer: Is your area affected by waterlogging or floods? This is a user-driven layer that allows you to mark areas affected by water logging on the map. We all know where waterlogging and floods happen in our own neighborhoods. By pooling this information on the map, we can create a record of places which are regularly and badly affected by floods. This map can be used to lobby the government to take action in areas of greatest need. Click here to mark areas of waterlogging on our site!
• Bus Routes Layer: Currently, there is no easy-to-use, publicly available map of bus routes in the city. The TC team decided to create a database of bus routes in the city. We have an easily searchable map of all the routes in the city using the MTC’s stage to stage data. Just click on your origin and destination to find all routes that connect them. We have also mapped full routes (including all stops) for 50 routes by riding buses from terminus to terminus, carrying GPS units. Do you use public buses to commute within the city? If so, help us collect more bus routes for this layer.
• Write on our blog!: TC maintains a blog, where team members actively write about ongoing data collection and projects, upcoming events, urban issues, city-related news, etc. The blog is an informal platform that allows the TC team, as well as the public to communicate with each other and comment/discuss on urban issues. We encourage our users to utilize this platform by actively reading, commenting and guest blogging. Please contact us if you would like to use our blog as a tool to communicate with other residents in the city.
• Informal Meeting on Pedestrian Issues: Many residents feel that pedestrian space is shrinking in the city. TC is planning to host a series of meetings in partnership with local organizations to informally discuss walking spaces, pedestrian accidents and other pedestrian issues in different areas of the city. In order to help us plan and prepare for these meetings, we request you to send us details about pedestrian issues in your area. Is your locality pedestrian friendly? What are some junctions in your locality that are particularly accident-prone and dangerous to pedestrians? Is it easy for elderly members of your community to walk in your area? How about for children? Please send us an email with these details, so we can all learn about issues facing pedestrians in various parts of the city.

Roshan Toshniwal

The first week of January, Chennai had a campaign for road safety week. Traffic policemen handed over pamphlets containing information for safe driving to the motorist, ushering pedestrians to safely cross traffic junctions and educating children in schools about road safety. According to a recent article in The Hindu, the number of accidents in the city have stayed the same, but the number has sharply increased in the suburbs. If both the suburban and city fatalities are counted, the number of deaths from traffic accidents in Chennai in 2010 increases to 1,415. According to the reporter, this is the largest number of deaths in 10 years, nearly triple what it was in 2000.

We at Transparent Chennai had filed an RTI (Right to Information Act) petition to get the record of accidents and their locations in the last five years (2005-2009). From the data we have available, Jawaharlal Nehru Road (100 feet road), Anna Salai, EVR Salai (Poonamalee High Road) and the East Coast Road have the maximum number of accidents.

On the 100 feet road – Thirumangalam, Koyembedu, Vadapalani and the Kathipara junctions are the biggest hotspots for accidents. On EVR Salai, Nelson Manickan Road, the Ega theatre, and the Vaishnav College junction are the hotspots for accidents. On Anna Salai, Teynampet Signal, Nandanam signal and the Walajah Road junction are the hot spots. According to the data, from the recorded 5,182 accidents there were 1427 accidents in which pedestrians were involved which is about 27.5% . Between every three accidents one accident involves a pedestrian.

According to a report compiled by the WHO (World Health Organisation), road safety has become the tenth leading cause of death in the world, and is expected to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. The report states that “each year nearly 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic collision—more than 3,000 deaths each day—and more than half of these people are not travelling in a car. Twenty to fifty million more people sustain non-fatal injuries from a collision, and these injuries are an important cause of disability worldwide.”  ((WHO), 2009) More importantly, the report says that 90% of deaths related to traffic accidents occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have less than half of the world’s registered automobiles.

Within India, too, the data shows that accidents are concentrated in certain states. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka together account for 38% of the country’s accidents. (Research WinG, 2008)

Chennai’s fatality rate puts it second on the list of metropolitan cities that experience the most number of road accidents, a comparison of official figures reveals. New Delhi, a much bigger city, recorded 1,978 traffic fatalities in 2010. Below is a comparative analysis of various cities based on 2008 data. The Tamil Nadu government wants to make changes to this situation – at least on paper. The road safety policy in the state aims to achieve a 20% reduction in fatalities and injuries from road accidents by 2013. (http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/) However, such reductions will require focused action from the government on traffic safety, of the sort we have not yet seen.

Accident profile of selected cities in 2008:

Source: Road Accidents in India (2008), Transport Research Wing, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (GOI).

These numbers may not be accurate as several accidents are underreported, not analysed in a systematic way, not categorised under road traffic injuries and sometimes. Apart from this there are discrepancies in data provided by the media although three sources police transport and health sector keeps a record of the road traffic injuries.

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(WHO), W. H. (2009). Global Status report on Road Safety: Time for Action. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO press.
http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2011, from Tamil Nadu State Transport Department : http://www.tn.gov.in/policynotes/pdf/home_transport.pdf
Research WinG, M. o. (2008). Road Accident in India . New Delhi: Government of India.
Srivatsan, A. (2010, January 9). Fatal Accidents have tripled in the last ten Years. The Hindu , p. 3.

Join us this Saturday to clean up and map the Valmiki Nagar beach. This is a citizen based mapping project initiated by TC for the the Valmiki Nagar Residents Association. The goal of the exercise is to supervise volunteers whose aim is to create a detailed map of the valmiki nagar beach. In addition to this volunteers will be conducting a waste audit, whose results will be mapped. Both mapping efforts will finally be added to TC’s website.

Date: 15th January 2011
Place: Valmiki Nagar Beach (the beach opposite 4th seeeward road in Thiruvanmiyur)
Time: 5 P.M

Please email siddharth.hande@gmail.com to volunteer.

Thank you,

TC Team

My Sunday mornings are normally meant for sleeping in, being lazy, watching TV and eating a late brunch. However, this Sunday was different from others. For starters, I woke up at 5:15am. I then got dressed and made my way to Marina beach to do something much needed – pick up trash!

The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) led a massive volunteer effort towards cleaning up the 15-km coastal stretch from Marina to Injambakkam this Sunday. CTC is a non-profit volunteer-based organization of nearly 1000 trekking enthusiasts. The group is actively involved in exploring trails, jungles and mountains all over India. CTC organizes 5-8 treks every month and often more than one trek on weekends. Apart from trekking, the group is also passionate about raising environmental and social awareness and organizes several campaigns to clean up and preserve environmentally sensitive areas.

Sunday’s coastal clean up was a sequel to another massive clean up that was held in May 2010. The group’s founder had a vision to make this event the largest beach clean up campaign in Chennai’s recent history. Thus, a single email calling for volunteers caught the attention of hundreds of residents and the media. In a mere few weeks, nearly 1000 volunteers (including me J) signed up to offer 2 hours of their Sunday morning to rid the city’s coastline of garbage.

This was my first interaction with CTC, and I was pleasantly surprised at how organized its volunteers were. The 15-km stretch that we cleaned was divided into 1-km zones, with 2-3 of CTC’s organizers manning each zone. A map indicating pick-up points, beach clean up zones and organizer names was sent out to everyone ahead of time through email. I signed up to meet the group that gathered at the Marina lighthouse. When I got to the beach, I saw a few organizers ready and waiting with gloves and biodegradable garbage bags (sponsored by Biotec). Once the gloves and bags were handed out, my group was divided into two teams– one that picked up larger pieces of trash, such as shoes, gunny bags, large plastic bags, etc, and a second team that picked up smaller pieces such as cigarette butts, small pieces of thermocole, plastic, etc. Since I am afflicted with an obsessive compulsive disorder and love cleaning in detail, I happily opted to join the second group. I spent a good 1.5 hours picking up all kinds of trash (and burning a lot of calories J), much of which was deeply buried in sand. Several of CTC’s photographers captured photographs of the clean up at all of the different zones.

It was really nice to see how passionate all of the volunteers were about cleaning up the beach. There were people of all ages that came out to for the clean up that morning. We also got the attention of several fishermen who lived in the area and people who happened to be taking a stroll at the beach that morning. A few fishermen made some generous contributions to my trash bag and even thanked me, which made me feel proud for doing something worthwhile with my Sunday morning. Together, we collected 800 bags of non-degradable garbage – a commendable attempt at raising environmental awareness.

I hope that the beach clean up has made Chennai’s residents realize the importance of preserving this precious and beautiful ecosystem, and that beach go-ers will now think twice before littering. On behalf of Transparent Chennai, I would like to thank CTC for organizing this amazing campaign. This effort is proof that we, as residents, can work together to make our city a better place to live!

Vaishnavi Narasimhan